FIFA Swing Axe on Disgraced Indonesian Football Chief

(WFI) FIFA have brought an end to the career of disgraced Indonesian FA (PSSI) president Nurdin Halid and devolved the current PSSI executive committee of all of its responsibilities after FIFA's emergencies committee decreed it was "not in control of football in Indonesia" and had lost "all credibility."

FIFA's emergency committee met Friday and announced today that control of the PSSI would pass to a normalisation committee made up of personalities in Indonesian football to oversee presidential elections by 21 May. It also barred Halid from standing, along with three other candidates - George Toisutta, Arifin Panigora and Nirwan Bakrie - from standing.

The development follows fears that Halid - a two time graft convict - and his colleagues seeking to manipulate the electoral process ahead of planned FA elections scheduled for later this month.

Last week FIFA castigated the discredited leadership of the PSSI after it prevented a FIFA observer from attending a special congress it had ordered, and for falsely claiming that football’s world governing body ordered the cancellation of the meeting

FIFA said in a statement today that the current PSSI leadership's lack of control over Indonesian football was evidenced by "the failure to gain control of the run-away league (Liga Premiere, LPI) set up without the involvement of PSSI or by the fact it could not organise a congress whose sole goals were to adopt an electoral code and elect an electoral commission."

It said that its emergency committee had concluded that the PSSI leadership "had lost all credibility" and was no longer "in a position anymore to lead the process to solve the current crisis."

A normalisation committee made up of personalities in Indonesian football who are not seeking electoral office or a position on an electoral commission is to take over running of Indonesian football until new leadership is elected by May 21.

FIFA has vested the normalisation committee with a threefold "mission": "to organise elections based on the FIFA electoral code and PSSI statutes before 21 May 2011; to bring the run-away league under PSSI control or have it stopped as soon as possible; to run the day-to-day activities of PSSI in a spirit of reconciliation for the good of the Indonesian football."

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